Britain risks entering a new Dark Age because the cult of celebrity is undermining learning, a senior Tory said yesterday.

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Liam Fox warned the fabric of society was under threat, with the ‘age of reason’ going into reverse.

The defence spokesman said a generation ago children wanted to be astronauts or scientists – now they simply want fame.

‘Since the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, the age of reason, we have transformed our world,’ he said.

‘But there is a crisis of confidence, an uncertainty and a lack of optimism in our society which should trouble us.

‘Diminishing social mobility, the cult of the celebrity society, the decline in serious learning, the increasing disregard for empiricism and social attitudes verging on value-phobia threaten to cast a shadow on the enlightened western liberalism which has taken us so far.’